Beginning Your Goal Setting Plans

This section explains how to set personal goals. It starts with your lifetime goals, and then works through a series of lower level plans culminating in a daily to-do list.

By setting up this plan structure you can break even the biggest life goal down into a number of small tasks that you need to do each day to reach the lifetime goals.

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime, as setting lifetime goals that gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making process.

To help give you a broad and balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some or all of the following categories:

• Artistic:Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what is it? Do you want to write a book, paint a masterpiece, or write a song?

• Attitude:Does your own mindset hold you back from making progress? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? For example, do you talk too much? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.

• Career:What level do you want to reach in your career? Is it your goal to be the boss or own your own company someday? Or do you want to be the president of someone else’s company?

• Education:Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular, or some area of study that you would like to pursue? What information and skills will you need to achieve these goals?

• Family:Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want your partner or family members to see you?

• Financial:How much do you want to earn by what age in your life? What can you do to make that come about?

• Physical:Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve? Or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?

• Pleasure:How do you want to enjoy yourself? You should ensure that some of your life is geared toward making yourself happy for no reason other than being happy.

• ServiceDo you want to make the world a better place by your existence? If so, how?

Once you have decided your goals in these categories, you have to assign a priority to them if you want to succeed.

Then review the goals and re-prioritize until you are satisfied that they reflect the shape of the life that you want to lead.

Also, you should ensure that the goals that you have set are the goals that you want to achieve, and not what your parents, spouse, family, or employers want them to be.

Success only happens when you are working for your own well being because doing it for others will ensure that you sabotage your own success.